Abuse claims police matter - Clegg

Nick Clegg has said a public inquiry into allegations of historic paedophile activity in Westminster would be "no surrogate" for a full police investigation, amid growing calls for a root-and-branch investigation into any potential cover-up.

Yesterday former home secretary Lord Brittan defended his handling of a 1980s dossier alleging paedophile activity in Westminster - after the Government admitted it appeared to have been destroyed.

Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain today, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "I just want the truth to come out and justice to be done. When we're dealing with allegations of such a serious criminal nature, I don't think there's any surrogate, really, for allowing the police to get to the bottom of what happened."

Lord Brittan initially stated yesterday that he had asked officials to look into the issue, and did not "recall being contacted further about these matters by Home Office officials or by Mr Dickens (MP Geoffrey Dickens who prepared the dossier) or by anyone else".

But he said later: "The Home Office independent review is entirely consistent with the action I set out in my earlier statement. Whilst I could not recall what further action was taken 30 years ago, the information contained in this report shows that appropriate action and follow-up happened."

Lord Brittan's intervention came after Labour MP Simon Danczuk urged him to spell out what he knew about the Dickens dossier - believed to have contained information about the Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie) and abuse networks operating around Westminster.

Mr Danczuk, who has investigated claims of abuse by ex-MP Cyril Smith, is calling for a "Hillsborough-style" inquiry to prevent allegations involving politicians being "swept under the carpet".

He insisted there was "no reason" why the dossier should have been destroyed by the Home Office.

It prompted calls for a public inquiry, similar to the investigation into the deaths of 96 football fans in the Hillsborough stadium disaster.

Former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "It sounds to me as though there needs to be further investigation into this. Some of the detail is more than troubling. It's always alarming when material goes missing.

"This may just be the passage of time, it may not be anything sinister, but I don't think people are going to be satisfied for this to be left as it is."

Labour MP John Mann told PM an over-arching inquiry was "essential".

The Bassetlaw MP said: "There's more and more of this coming up. It goes to the heart of the establishment, and the key institutions of the country have been involved in doing nothing about it. That's why there needs to be a full public inquiry."

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Mr Clegg said: "I want to see the police getting to the bottom of what's alleged to have happened, which is absolutely horrific in some children's homes up and down the country. A number of police inuqiries are already going on.

"I really would say to anybody who has any evidence, knowledge or information about what happened of a criminal nature, please get in touch with the police. They're the people who can do the job so that justice can finally be done and these very, very serious allegations can be looked into.

"I can't provide too much commentary on what happened in the Home Office in the mid-1980s, but he (Lord Brittan) explained that he passed on this dossier. The Home Office explained last year that the document doesn't exist."

Downing Street continued to resist calls for an over-arching inquiry and said people with information about abuse should go to the police.

T he Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "If there are allegations, evidence of wrongdoing, that people have, then of course they should bring that to the attention of the relevant authorities, including the police of course."

That was "the right way to go about getting to the bottom of these things", he added.

He said that the Home Office review "explains that information following that review was given to the police".

Only the executive summary of the review was published, but asked if the document would be published in full the spokesman said: "My understanding is that the executive summary reflects very fully the report."

Mr Cameron had not spoken to Lord Brittan about the issue, the spokesman said.

Labour crime and security spokeswoman Diana Johnson said: "The Home Office and Home Secretary's reaction to allegations of incompetence in dealing with allegations of child sex abuse has been lamentable.

"Serious questions about how these allegations were handled remain and a review carried in haste by two officials does not reflect the seriousness of the issues at hand.

"At the very least, the Government must explain what action was taken in the 1980s and what files were destroyed. A proper investigation is needed into these allegations, into what happened, and also into how the Government of the day and others responded.

"In addition to this investigation, it is also clear that we need an over-arching review - led by experts - to bring together the findings of all these inquiries and look at child protection for the future."

Comments

NICK CLEGG says" I want to see the police getting to the bottom"
Your like all the rest Nick.

NICK CLEGG says" I want to see the police getting to the bottom"
Your like all the rest Nick.cosmick

NICK CLEGG says" I want to see the police getting to the bottom"
Your like all the rest Nick.

Score: 1

Nicholas_Till
7:43pm Thu 3 Jul 14

It is not surprising that Leon Brittan was not enthusiastic to have the dossier brought into the light of day.

He was in it.

At any rate, he participated in paedophile sex parties at The Elm Guest House in Barnes, London, along with various other establishment figures and kids brought in from one or more care homes. The landlady kept a register of those who attended these. This and other documents were taken away by police, but enough of these and some of the goings-on were seen by others, who have handed on details to current campaigners. Leon Brittan and his activities feature in these.

For some fairly appalling low-down on Brittan and circumstantial aspects of this stuff, hear the following YouTube from 43 - 47 minutes in:

Nightmares at Elm Guest House. Bill Maloney interviews Chris Fay

www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=ORU5x=ryedU

Plenty else on this one out there.

I should add, Bill Maloney and Chris Fay are utterly credible investigators.

It is not surprising that Leon Brittan was not enthusiastic to have the dossier brought into the light of day.
He was in it.
At any rate, he participated in paedophile sex parties at The Elm Guest House in Barnes, London, along with various other establishment figures and kids brought in from one or more care homes. The landlady kept a register of those who attended these. This and other documents were taken away by police, but enough of these and some of the goings-on were seen by others, who have handed on details to current campaigners. Leon Brittan and his activities feature in these.
For some fairly appalling low-down on Brittan and circumstantial aspects of this stuff, hear the following YouTube from 43 - 47 minutes in:
Nightmares at Elm Guest House. Bill Maloney interviews Chris Fay
www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=ORU5x=ryedU
Plenty else on this one out there.
I should add, Bill Maloney and Chris Fay are utterly credible investigators.Nicholas_Till

It is not surprising that Leon Brittan was not enthusiastic to have the dossier brought into the light of day.

He was in it.

At any rate, he participated in paedophile sex parties at The Elm Guest House in Barnes, London, along with various other establishment figures and kids brought in from one or more care homes. The landlady kept a register of those who attended these. This and other documents were taken away by police, but enough of these and some of the goings-on were seen by others, who have handed on details to current campaigners. Leon Brittan and his activities feature in these.

For some fairly appalling low-down on Brittan and circumstantial aspects of this stuff, hear the following YouTube from 43 - 47 minutes in:

Nightmares at Elm Guest House. Bill Maloney interviews Chris Fay

www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=ORU5x=ryedU

Plenty else on this one out there.

I should add, Bill Maloney and Chris Fay are utterly credible investigators.

Score: 0

MadMicke12
5:01am Fri 4 Jul 14

This happened at the same time as Saville and Harris. Could it be that this is why they got away with it for so long -it was buried under the carpet by 'ten' ministerial officials so that the PIE activities of these government Ministers and Secretaries of State were protected.

In a time where the country was run by political elitist's, something which is even more so now, it was in their interest to bury these documents, or worse, destroy them so that it could not come back to bite them on the backside later on down the line.

There should and must be an enquiry that covers every avenue of this matter, including which police officers might or might not have benefited from the loss of these documents.

I hear some shouts here about how politicians are unlikely to have been involved in these sorts of things, but if Church ministers, TV celebrities and children's home's staff were at it, through PIE or otherwise, we cannot just assume that politicians were above doing this.

This happened at the same time as Saville and Harris. Could it be that this is why they got away with it for so long -it was buried under the carpet by 'ten' ministerial officials so that the PIE activities of these government Ministers and Secretaries of State were protected.
In a time where the country was run by political elitist's, something which is even more so now, it was in their interest to bury these documents, or worse, destroy them so that it could not come back to bite them on the backside later on down the line.
There should and must be an enquiry that covers every avenue of this matter, including which police officers might or might not have benefited from the loss of these documents.
I hear some shouts here about how politicians are unlikely to have been involved in these sorts of things, but if Church ministers, TV celebrities and children's home's staff were at it, through PIE or otherwise, we cannot just assume that politicians were above doing this.MadMicke12

This happened at the same time as Saville and Harris. Could it be that this is why they got away with it for so long -it was buried under the carpet by 'ten' ministerial officials so that the PIE activities of these government Ministers and Secretaries of State were protected.

In a time where the country was run by political elitist's, something which is even more so now, it was in their interest to bury these documents, or worse, destroy them so that it could not come back to bite them on the backside later on down the line.

There should and must be an enquiry that covers every avenue of this matter, including which police officers might or might not have benefited from the loss of these documents.

I hear some shouts here about how politicians are unlikely to have been involved in these sorts of things, but if Church ministers, TV celebrities and children's home's staff were at it, through PIE or otherwise, we cannot just assume that politicians were above doing this.

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